


Cherry farms

by Holycowbrowniekitty



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Crack, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-31
Updated: 2017-05-31
Packaged: 2018-11-07 10:51:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11057424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Holycowbrowniekitty/pseuds/Holycowbrowniekitty
Summary: Mizuki wants to scout out Hyotei, but his familial relations force him to stay home and work on the farm during the vacation. What is a better idea than to use his dear slave- teammates and some other people to help him out!





	1. Beginning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just some random things I came up with. Don't take the fic too seriously.

“So, everyone understands what they have to do?”

Wednesdays were lecture days. At St. Rudolph at least. Everyone had been looking forward to the summer vacation, the rare occasion when children were allowed to be children for two months. Unfortunately, Mizuki was not a child that could carelessly spent his days, so he had requested for his teammates’ help during the vacation.

Of course, not all of them could be convinced that this free labor was fun and worth their time, so Mizuki bribed their parents.

“It sounds boring, dane.”, Yanagisawa quacked out. He had envisioned his summer vacation already; visiting Atsushi in Chiba and eating tons of popsicles on the beach. He would have to ask Atsushi later, but he wouldn’t mind it, he thought.

“Hm, I’m still not sure what you mean Mizuki. You claim this is good for our endurance and motor nerves?”, Akazawa asked. He was going to spend his vacation with his grandparents, in Okinawa. Hmissed the scuba diving and hunker the vibrant corals.

“Akazawa, I do not want you to underestimate the amount of effort that goes into it. Many persons have not come back healthy from strenuous labor like this, so this should prove to be a valuable experience to all of you.”, Mizuki clarified.

“Aren’t we just going to your farmer dad to pick and sort cherries while you will try to gather information on Hyotei?”, Atsushi asked. He would go back to Chiba, perhaps meet up with his old friends from Rokkaku and hang out at the beach.

“I’d prefer if you would call it harvesting. And it’s not a farmer, but an agriculturalist.”, Mizuki stressed.

“Even if you say it like that, don’t you think it’s better if we did a training camp inste-“

“Nomura, your input wasn’t asked.”, Mizuki interjected. “Kaneda, do you still have anything to remark?”

“I am alright with this, but aren’t we with a tad too few people to do this work? The surface area of the plantation we are supposed to harvest is quite big, and not something we could do in one day.”, Kaneda considered.

“Good point Kaneda, I was going to explain that as soon as you guys stopped asking me ignorant questions.”, Mizuki stated. “I know I’ve only scouted the best people, but I assure you, that I’m fully aware that our man force would definitely not be enough to finish this labor in one day.”

Mizuki pointed to the next slide. His presentations for each week were always neatly structured and had various interactive footage of both the team regulars, as their opponents. The first few times it freaked them out that he had that much information, but after 2 months of it they got used to it.

“That’s why I requested help from persons that you may already know. Yamabuki’s tennis team will join us. We have a force of about five and a half men, and they have a force of about eight and a half men. I don’t have sufficient information on Dan, so you can make that nine men if you’d like to.”

“Yamabuki? That would make an interesting ally.”, Akazawa pondered.  

“Akazawa, as usual you’re misunderstanding the situation. They are not our allies. They are merely there for Kaneda to pick up the art of observing and scouting. Especially these persons.”

Mizuki pointed his stick towards a guy with swirls on his cheeks. “This here, is Kita Ichiuma. We didn’t have a lot of information on him, because we were busy with Hyotei’s matches when he played doubles and defeated Fuji.”

 A hint of frustration spiced his tone. Akazawa figured that Mizuki might have been frustrated that a random vague looking boy was able to defeat Fuji, when he himself had no chance.

 “Next, we have him.”. A boy with eyeglasses appeared on the screen. “This is Muromachi Touji, referred to as Yamabuki’s secret weapon. While I suspect that this nickname holds no particular significance related to his strength, it wouldn’t hurt to test his limits either.”

“Are we really supposed to be picking cherries?”, Yanagisawa whispered.

“I’m su-“

“Nomura, please stay quiet when I’m explaining.”, Mizuki interjected. “Lastly we have this first year, Dan. He shows great potential when it comes to data gathering,  but his tennis skills are nonexistent I’m afraid.”

Mizuki looked dejected. “After we graduate, Kaneda, you and Fuji will have to carry the future of St. Rudolph alone. And because my scenario tells me that it’s impossible, I would like you to scout them.”

“But Mizuki, those person’s have already established a solid place in their team! They probably don’t have brother complexes or gullibility that we can manipulate.”, Kaneda objected. “To leave us with this task... It’s practically impossible!”

“If it pains you that much, I’m sure Rokkaku has some newborns lying around, but I will not sacrifice twelve years of St. Rudolph’s tennis history for their sake.”, Mizuki answered. “They will have their own transport paid for, so don’t worry about them dirtying our private school transport. The meeting is over, I’ll see you all after summer break.”

Yanagisawa sighed and packed up. It was only one day of labor, from 6 to 10 in the evening, but it still demotivated him. Akazawa slowly woke up from his slumber and was met by Mizuki shoving a paper in his face.

“Akazawa, considering Yuuta’s abstainment from this meeting, I would like you to deliver this paper to him, with all the instructions of today’s slides. I trust it will go well, okay?”, Mizuki smiled. Akazawa didn’t do anything but nod and slid the paper between one of his books.

He’d deliver them to Yuuta. Probably.

With that, Rudolph’s meeting as over and they all went back to the dormitory, anticipating Sunday.

 

* * *

 

“Woow, are those rose farms I see over there? Akutsu-senpai, look!”

Dan was unusually excited for a bus trip that would last 3 hours. He was seated at the second last seat and pressed his face with glee against the window, through the curtains as to not disturb the other’s sleep. “There are purple roses, I didn’t know they existed!”

Akutsu was still ignoring him. His head was filled with loud music and disabled even the loudest of voices to break through the protection called metal.  He lay stretched out on the last seats of the bus, unaware of any of the events that passed the last 2 hours.

Sengoku lifted himself up and looked behind him to reprimand Dan. “Dan, you’re so cheerful in the mornings, you’re really blessed.”

“Sengoku-senpai, you should sit down and rest, before your head will get hit again! Put your seatbelt on as well!”, Dan advised. Dan’s parents always told him to put on his seatbelt, no matter what. Even in a school bus.

“It’s still on, but it malfunctioned a bit.”, Sengoku said as he rested his back against the seats. He wiped his beaten forehead and tried to nod off, which was practically impossible because of the erratic driving.

“These guys of Yamabuki don’t know how to be silent dane~.”, Yanagisawa muttered under his breath. Rudolph was seated at the front, Yamabuki at the end.

“Akazawa, didn’t you put too much trust into Mizuki?”, Nomura asked, still trying to get a bend out of his glasses frame. 

“Don’t go blaming me, as the vice-captain, you should be the one handling this!”, is what Akazawa would have said in a normal situation, but a low groan came out instead.

“Hey, Kaneda, your doubles partner is dying dane~. Shouldn’t you help him?”, Yanagisawa grumbled to the boy a seat across him.

“Sorry senpai, shouldn’t you be worrying about your own doubles partner either?”, Kaneda whimpered. His back was sore and the slightest agitation would lead to reaching for Yanagisawa’s backpack.

Yanagisawa wanted to retort, but one glance at his neighbour made him retreat instead. Atsushi didn’t look good at all. His eye bags were not only visible from miles away, but his expression seemed to radiate only one, constant feeling. Death.

“Atsushi, are you alive dane~?”, Yanagisawa carefully asked. Atsushi moved only his eyes to glare at him, which the duck took as affirmative.

“This wouldn’t have happened if Yamabuki’s management had capable people.”, Nomura muttered under his breath.

“Excuse us for not being capable, while you guys intrude on our bus.”, Minami objected. “As if your management is so great, not having a bus because your manager used it to get to Hyotei.”

“Don’t take it personally. Isn’t it your fault for electing that lucky dude as your captain dane~?” Yanagisawa interrupted.

“Yeah...”, Minami mumbled, as he tried to damp out his clothes by spreading his limbs.

The drive had been a hectic day. They had to wake up at 3 am and meet at Yamabuki’s school gates. Banji would supervise that day, but he decided to go one day earlier, so he wouldn’t have to deal with the transport. And he had made a very smart choice.

St. Rudolph arrived first, strangely. They departed in group from the dormitories and arrived a full quarter before the arranged time. Kaneda was the first to wake, it took him only a single alarm. Without Mizuki practicing his opera daily, it took the others quite some adjusting as well, especially Yuuta, who wasn’t accustomed to an opera-less morning.

Yanagisawa got up easily as well, despite being even more grumpy and annoying than he already could be.

 It took ages to get Akazawa out his bed, but one single Kaneda resolved that issue. The vice captain quickly followed under the threat of an Akazawa let loose in his room.

It did seem that Atsushi was the only one that couldn’t handle it. Which was really weird, as he was the one that usually woke up first on usual schooldays, using the bathroom for a good hour before returning to his room to read some books. Yanagisawa always envied how he could look so fresh every day, with a poker face that somehow flattered his coolness.

When they went over to Atsushi’s room, they found out that he was unspeakable to in the early mornings. He quietly washed and dressed himself, before meeting with the others, who were all dumbfounded by their teammates murderous aura. They wondered if they could use it in tennis matches, to intimidate or perplex the opponent, but quickly brushed it aside.

When they got outside, they immediately got soaked by the downpour. It took an immense willpower get to the meeting point, but they managed to get on the bus safely.

Yamabuki came later, but were better natured. Akutsu could handle sleep deprivation and acted like the usual dick he was, chewing out the chauffeur because he wasn’t allowed to smoke his morning cigarettes in the bus. He wanted to lash out, but looking at the lifeless faces of St. Rudolph made him decide that it was better if he’d just go and nap on the backseats.

Unsurprisingly, Dan followed with his happy and cheery demeanour. He seemed to radiate literal sunshine as he stepped into the bus, accompanied by an oversized rain hoodie. Nevertheless his sunshine wasn’t that well received, but Dan paid no mind to it and ran towards the second last backseat, with his fanny pack tightly strung against his stomach.

 Muromachi was the next one. His eyeglasses hid his eyes to any onlooker, but would reveal that he had been on the PC for the whole night. As this was an usual happening to the boy, it seemed that he would have no visible problems with sleep deprivation.

Kita, the other 2nd year arrived a few moments later. The hanamura’s on his cheeks were wet, but showed no sign of fading or smudging, which kind of perplexed those that were awake enough to understand it’s complexity.

Sengoku made his appearance known fairly  early. He had apologized towards the entire bus that his luck might run out that day, as he didn’t have his lucky item. The broadcast of the lucky item show usually started around midnight, with the website updating as well around that time, but Sengoku had missed the broadcast, and their internet got down as well that day. He tried checking it on his phone, but accidentally dropped it into his early morning breakfast. With no choice left but to steal magazine’s from the local combi, he gave up and went to the bus.

Half an hour later, Nitobe arrived. Most of the inhabitants of the bus were already napping and the bus chauffeur didn’t seem to mind his lateness. He simply checked off the attendance list and started the motor. Nitobe went and seated himself in the seats opposite of Kita, who was also vast asleep.

With everyone ready the bus departed for the lovely mountains of Yamagata.

 

* * *

 

It took them half an hour to realize that two people were missing. By accident. Dan was reviewing the notes he had made about the cherry-peach picking and looked at the team management. Yuuta, Atsushi and Yanagisawa were in charge of the cherry picking in St. Rudolph. Akazawa, Nomura and Kaneda were supposed to sort them, based on their quality and smell. Mizuki had given all of them a handy guide to follow, in case the instructions from his father wouldn’t be clear.

As for Yamabuki, Sengoku, Muromachi, Kita and Nitobe would join the peach plucking, while Akutsu and himself would check the peaches sugar density. It seemed a bit weird as the peaches’ orchard was at least double the size of the cherry orchard, and they had  almost the same workforce as the cherry team.

After a bit of contemplating and doing some incredible math loopings, Dan decided that they would at least need six persons to pick all the peaches. And two of them were missing.

It didn’t take long for Dan to alert the chauffeur about the missing person case. After he checked the attendance list, it really seemed that two persons hadn’t entered the bus yet, and that he simply overlooked it.

Dan contacted Minami’s mother, to ask her of his whereabouts.  It seemed that they had overslept, so instead of waiting at the school gates, they waited at one of the bus stops.

They found them without a lot of hassle, underneath a broken waiting bench, completely  soaked by the rainfall, after a good 5 minutes of searching where they were. Needless to say, they brought in the smell of rain into the bus, and they had to deal with a time limit of only 2 hours, which would mean a driving speed of more than could be allowed.

And that would explain why the bus was smelling of rain and barf. Muromachi had been the first to go, reaching for Yanagisawa’s backpack. Yanagisawa protested, but it’s contents were already ruined so he didn’t want to bother cleaning it during the ride. He simply zipped it up. The aroma of freshly eaten Doritos drafted through the air, marking any seats next to Muromachi as the dead zone.

Nomura was cowering under the seats because of the storm. There were lightning bolts and deafening thunder vibrated throughout the entire bus. His body was sure to be bruised all over due to the inconsistent swing at times, but he was not going to expose himself towards mother nature, no way.

Yuuta was still busy playing on his GBA. He only had 3 levels left to beat and for sure he was not going to stop because of certain complexities.

While Atsushi and Akazawa both were wasting away, Sengoku tried to catch some sleep, to remedy his bad luck, but the movement of the bus did not help with it. Luckily he had a somewhat strong stomach, but due to a malfunction in his seatbelt, he slammed multiple times against Minami’s seat when the driver suddenly braked. He tried to move seats as well, managing to bump his head every time against Minami and the roof, because of well timed unlucky swings of the bus.

 Akutsu was still napping. Dan was arranging his flashcards. Kita and Nitobe were playing cards. The backside looked really attractive and repulsive to everyone on the front seats.

 

* * *

 

“Akutsu-senpai, look, I think that’s the farm over there!”, Dan cheered as he motioned towards the big orchard in the valley.

 “Nitobe-senpai, are you alright?”, Kita asked from the backside. Nitobe had opened the curtains and started photosynthesizing, as well as letting the sunshine blind Minami and Sengoku. His expression was blank, but Kita could tell he was really happy. The storm had stopped and the sun had appeared, ready to suck the soul out of the poor boys.

The light was already seeping in throughout the curtains, and Yuuta closed his game, realizing it was nearly impossible to play with the sharp light and his battery running out. “Akazawa-buchou, isn’t it about time to wake everyone?”

Yuuta looked behind him to see the half-dead bodies of his team. “Huh, what happened here? I guess I’ll have to wake up everyone by myself.”

Yuuta snapped back his belt and took one side of the curtain, sliding it all the way over to the other side, illuminating his teammates with the UV radiation.

“Good morning everyone!”, he beamed, with a smile on his face.         

* * *

     

“Mizuki’s farm is really impressive dane~”, Yanagisawa groggily exclaimed. It spread out far and had a rather large greenhouse, probably suited for the tourists that came fruit plucking.

“According to Mizuki, we will have to work at that patch over there.”, Nomura said as he stared at a smaller fenced part that had green luscious trees.

Everyone had safely gotten out, and there were no extreme injuries apparent. There were a few times that some people considered to kill Fuji’s younger brother, but they decided that it was a morning for everyone and that Fuji’s wrath might not be worth it.

Mizuki had told them that they would receive the needed tools and clothes there, and that it would suffice to just bring an extra shirt, but because Muromachi existed, this got a bit warped.

“Oh isn’t that Banji over there?”, Higashikata said as he motioned towards the building. An old man was arranging tools and papers in front of some kind of sideshed. He noticed the newly arrived group and waved for them to come over.

“Did you guys have a nice trip?”, Banji asked as he smiled towards each and every youngster. “It seems you all look fine and ready to work!”

“I need to pee.”, Kaneda asked.

“Don’t worry, small Rudolph, you can all refresh and eat the snacks you brought first in the garden. Don’t litter!”, Banji smiled. “I will see you guys in a quarter.”

“At least we got time to prepare ourselves and forget that hellish bus ride dane~.”,Yanagisawa mumbled. “Atsushi, can I have your snacks?”

Atsushi looked somewhat better, if not completely destroyed but alive. He said nothing and departed towards the bathroom.

“You can have mine if you want, I don’t think I’m going to eat something for a while.”, Muromachi motioned as he handed his backpack to Yanagisawa. He accepted the gesture, considering it was Muromachi’s fault that everything in his backpack was defiled.

Dan was running around, taking pictures of everything with his _Fuji film_ camera that he was allowed to lend from his parents. The concept of simply taking a picture without needing any electrical components was simply amazing.

Sengoku accidentally stepped in a rabbit poo when he got off the bus, so he was accompanying Atsushi in the bathroom.

Everyone was geared up in rubber boots, working gloves and accompanying strawhats. Except Akutsu, deeming it as something uncool. Minami told him it wouldn’t be uncool when he would have to be carried off with a sunstroke but seeing as Akutsu was amazing at listening to other people’s advice, nothing more happened.

A coworker of Mizuki’s dad showed them around the orchard, showcasing them the color coded trees that would have to be plucked, how exactly they would have to do it, how the sugar density meter worked and how they were to sort the fruits. And probably more.  If only the group he was leading didn’t have the attention span of teenage boys it would have been useful.

“Mizuki already told us all of this, is it really necessary to listen to all of it again.”

“Those cherries look so delicious!”

“I have to pee again.”

“Minami, Nitobe-senpai is eating the soil!”

“Nitobe, don’t eat the soil!”

Somehow the co-worker didn’t notice it. Or pretended to ignore it.

“So, I think you guys can start.  Hajime had promised that you guys would definitely be able to finish this work in a day. It’s very nice of you guys to help him.”, the co-worker said. She wiped the sweat of her brows and added: “It would have taken him at least two weeks, it’s really such a shame to spend your vacation like that. A day work like this is definitely worth it though, don’t let it discourage you!”

“Hajime, she’s on first name basis with him.”

“Can it be that he just used us to skip his work?”

“It’s not unexpected of him.”

“I wish you good luck. Please do not harvest any fruits from the fenced area. If you remembered all that, you can start! I’ll see you guys!”, the woman continued.

“They really have it easy huh. It can’t be helped. Let’s divide in the groups they told us to, so we can finish earlier.”, Minami said.

And thus they split.

And so the disastrous tale of Mizuki’s farm started.

* * *

 

And it promptly ended.

“I’m sorry Mizuki, I’m really sorry.”

“It’s pretty hard to distinguish red little things anyway, dane~.”

“Yanagisawa ate all of them, I didn’t do it.”

Mizuki fumbled around, with grace. His face was flushing of anger, but nonetheless he managed to keep his composure.  “Being colour-blind doesn’t excuse you from eating 10000 worths of yen in fruits.”

He had returned the evening, after his adventure at Hyotei.

“Just one wouldn’t hurt... Besides, it was at the plucking farm, so they would have been eaten anyway.”

“The damage has been minimized, luckily due to my timely intervention. It seems however that Yuuta is still missing, and I am afraid what danger he’ll bring to our crops.”, Mizuki interjected. He was on the verge of throwing his teammates in the nearby pond, but decided against, as it was slightly illegal.

“Yamabuki, I would like to ask how it is possible to break 4 densitometers, use up two months worth of fertilizer, which you weren’t able to have access too, and deliver only half a day work of produce,  from which, I would like to add, another half was crushed like jam, despite you guys not having eaten any of it?”, Mizuki said, as he ignored his team. He slowly suspected Akutsu had something to do with it, but evaded his gaze as to not make any trouble.

“Akutsu was just too strong to pluck peaches, Mizuki!”, Dan defended, feeling the tension in the air.

“But Dan, weren’t you the one who broke the tools?”, Sengoku crept in. He wasn’t the type to fire up conflicts, but his luck today was horrible, and he figured it couldn’t get any worse than this.

“Sengoku, you’re not one to talk. Who did I hear talking with Muromachi about the softness of peaches and how tender they are supposed to be handled?”, Minami scolded. Not surprisingly, the Jimmies of the team were the only capable ones. They had hauled in two big baskets of average grade peaches, and the grannies of the farm really admired them.

“At least me and Muromachi brought in some peaches, and they weren’t horribly crushed. Akutsu’s basket could have been a jampot~”

Muromachi nodded. “Besides, where were Kita and Nitobe during the whole thing?  I don’t think they delivered their harvest either you know.”

“Hn, oh yeah, where were you two?”, Minami asked, motioning to the dirty Kita and somewhat wet Nitobe.

“I was cultivating Nitobe~”, Kita said.

“He was cultivating me~”, Nitobe said.

“It was a good cultivating, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, it was~.”

“Kita-senpai, are you okay, dirty like that?”, Dan asked. He was the only one that attempted to understand those two’s behaviour, but even then, it raised more questions than it got answers.

“Anyway, I assume I am allowed to bill your parents for the havoc you have caused to this farm. I won’t accept any objections, but our priority now is to find Yuuta.” Mizuki said.

As soon as he spoke the words, a high pitched scream erupted from outside.

“What was that?”

The bunch ran outside, wondering where what the source of the sound was.

“Mizuki, I think I heard something from over there.”, Kaneda mumbled as he pointed towards the fenced area.

The imaginary teapot inside Mizuki started boiling. Fear overtook him as he sped up towards the farm plots which held the greatest treasure of the Mizuki estate, the elite graded Mizuki cherry trees. A box of merely 50 of them could be sold for 12000 yen at once, thanks to its unique, sweet and honey driven flavour.  They were very careful with pollinating and breeding the trees, which were done by experts and special sticks with fluffy balls, as to not dirty them with commoner trees.

“Watch out Mizuki! I think I hear bees!”, Akazawa yelled. A clutter of noises welled up and soon reached his ears. The fenced area was still closed off, but they could hear Yuuta’s yowling.

A small yellow-black insect flew throught the fence and landed on Muromachi’s sunglasses. He stumbled back, unsure of what to do and let out a yelp.

Sengoku immediately gave him advice: “Take off your sunglasses, really slowly...”

In normal circumstances, Muromachi would have considered that the most inconsiderate advice given to him, but he feared the bee’s sting more. As he reached slowly towards the handles of his sunglasses, Mizuki yelled out at him: “DON’T MOVE, ANYONE!”

Muromachi halted, as did most of the others. The guys that didn’t freeze, mainly Nitobe and Kita, ran off.

“Hey, where do yo-“

“Minami, don’t move. Those guys wouldn’t be helpful in this case.”

Minami gave a confused stare at Mizuki, but dutifully followed his orders.

“Why are we freezing?”, Nomura suddenly asked.

Mizuki’s brows furrowed. “That thing on Muromachi’s sunglasses... that’s not a bee.”

“Nomura focused his sight a little bit on the insect. “It looks like a very large bee, don’t you think?”

“Oh, isn’t that a hornet?”, Dan suggested.

One moment later, Muromachi’s sunglasses laid broken on the floor, with the exoskelet of the hornet in a similar state.

“I guess, that solved the problem.”, Higashikata light-heartedly said. Who knew that the unknown second year had such great reflexes. Muromachi might be slow in tennis, but if it comes to life threatening situations, he sure was quick to act. Mizuki made a mental note on him.

“So, is it safe to assume that Yuuta is somewhere in this tree forest thing, stuck somehow, as he hasn’t run towards the gate, and is surrounded by hornets?”

“High probability, but we don’t have hornets native to the farm.”, Mizuki replied. He was glad that they weren’t bees. Bees would have polluted the tree gene line, he could not have that. But then there was still the problem that Yuuta might die if he got stinged. This would get icky.

“As for how I see the situation, we could make a lure of the peach jam, and flash lights. If the fastes under us could place it and activate the lights, the hornets would be more attracted to the aromas of that than those of Yuuta’s. This will involve rope, someone who is good at climbing and a bucket. If that doesn’t work we have chicken leftovers from yesterday...”

Mizuki contributed a large scale plan, with many details and a convincing premise. Even Akutsu was fascinated by how his scenario played out, but he wouldn’t show that on his face.

“But Mizuki, won’t that require one of us to enter in that evil farm plot with hornets?”

“Have patience, my second scenario is that we call the fire fighters from the block down. They have experience in extermination of insects as well, and they have frequently visited us to rescue or precious cherry trees from vermin like Yuuta, so they know as to not damage the goods.”

“Why don’t we call the fire fighters?”

“That sounds like a plan.”, Mizuki said as he flipped his phone and started dialing the fire fighters.

 

* * *

 

Not more than an hour later, Yuuta was reunited with his lovely teammates.  He hadn’t died, luckily, but had gotten a nasty sting on his ankle, which required immediate medical attention.  As he was slowly shipped of in an ambulance, he yelled something about climbing trees, waterhoses, and hornets, but nothing important that Mizuki couldn't hear later. The trees weren’t ravaged, and there was no major damage done to the fruits either. He hoped.

As the ambulance noises died in the distance, he directed himself to Banji and the remaining members. “Thank you all for your volunteering patronage, I hereby declare that all of you are banned from visiting me ever again. Have a nice trip back home.” He handed a bill to Banji and then returned to the house complex.

The members of the volunteering team understood the message and packed their load to return to Yamabuki’s gates.

“Do we really have to walk all the way back to the dorms, dane~”, Yanagisawa begrudgingly yawned. After all that happened, he didn’t feel like walking another mile.

The bus was cleaned and most of the smell was gone. Once they got seated and their attendance taken, the bus started with a slow purring sound and rhythmically drove the boys one by one to sleep. Except Sengoku. The day hadn’t ended yet and his luck was still horrible, so he had to deal with a bunch of snoring teenagers. 

“What an unlucky day~”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	2. Revelation

“Father, did you call me?”

“Hajime. I think we have a problem.”

“Is it worse than the hornet problem we had last month?”

“I’m afraid so. Take a look at this.”

Mizuki walked towards his father and froze.

“N-no, this, this can’t be...”

His father had noticed a new type of weed sprouting in his field. He tilled some of it, but it’s roots were deeper than expected.

“I-it’s a...”

“We should report this. Right now.”

Mizuki’s father threw some dirt on the skull. The plates had intertwined with the roots of the sprout and were curling lively around it, making beautiful spiral forms on the cheekbones.


	3. Dissapearance

“Minami-senpai, have you seen Kita and Nitobe? They haven’t come to practice lately, and I’m worried."

Minami thought about it, and it was kind of true. The last time he vividly remembered the odd pair, they ran off at the sight of the hornet. He wasn’t even sure if he could remember them being on the bus.

“Dan, do you have their contact info?”

“Ah, yes, wait a second.”, Dan said as he went through his oldfashioned flip phone.

“Huh, where is it? Ah, NO! My contact info got deleted!”

“How strange. Let’s ask the teachers later.”, Minami suggested.


	4. Ending

“HEY, WHAT HAVE YOU RASCALS DONE!”, a teacher yelled at the top of his lungs.  
“Nothing~”  
“Nothing~”  
“DON’T PRETEND TO BE INNOCENT! I KNOW YOU GUYS WERE THE LAST IN THE BIOLOGY ROOM BEFORE THE VACATION STARTED!”  
At his words, the teacher pulled a decapacitated skeleton in the room.  
“WHERE DID THE SKULL GO!”  
“Oops~”  
“Oops~”  
Nitobe and Kita shrugged. Where could the skull have gone to?


End file.
